


Where I save the moments I did not forget

by heavensweetheart



Category: Carmen Sandiego (Cartoon 2019)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Bittersweet Ending, But You Get It, Chance Meetings, F/M, Fix-It of Sorts, Memories, Not so alternate because it happened in canon, Post-Canon Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-22
Updated: 2021-01-22
Packaged: 2021-03-13 18:27:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28907820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heavensweetheart/pseuds/heavensweetheart
Summary: Carmen Sandiego’s life had never been normal. She couldn’t remember if there had been a time when she wished it was, perhaps only that it could be less… complicated.
Relationships: Gray | Crackle/Carmen Sandiego | Black Sheep
Comments: 9
Kudos: 111





	Where I save the moments I did not forget

**Author's Note:**

  * For [blackhawkdown](https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackhawkdown/gifts).



> I haven't watched the series yet (tho I'm eager to!) but I gained what I know thanks to a certain special someone, so I thought I might as well thank that person for introducing me to the show! :-)

_"And I wonder if you, too, remember something about that coffee we took. The one I wait sometimes without understanding why."_

– La Oreja de Van Gogh.

Carmen Sandiego’s life had never been normal. She couldn’t remember if there had been a time when she wished it was, perhaps only that it could be less… complicated.

Yet here things were, they turned out for the good at the end. They managed to dismantle V.I.L.E. – with a few loose ends, but they were working on that, too – Zack and Ivy were now A.C.M.E. agents along with Jules and Chase… Carmen had gotten to meet her mother, and Gray…

Carmen choked in silence.

Gray was fine, she thought. Or rather, she repeated it. Those three words had become some kind of quasi-daily mantra.

She hadn’t been chanting it for the past two years, she wasn’t _that_ obsessive, but one day it only… awoke in her, the question of what Gray might be up to. And its weight became overwhelming, it crushed Carmen each day that passed.

It was as if it was pressing specific spots in her brain, triggering thousands of emotions at once: sadness, loneliness, anger, fear. It was torture. She felt like tracking down Gray just so she could shake him around and then cry of joy that she hadn’t killed him back when she was under V.I.L.E.’s control.

She did not track him down, never truly attempted to, there were _thousands_ of reasons why it was a bad idea.

Gray had returned to his former, usual self.

He made his own choices.

He was now a person who no longer fit with A.C.M.E. or Team Red… or with Carmen.

A new emotion unlocked. It was one that only came out on few occasions, only when these memories came.

It was grief. For someone who was still alive.

Carmen looked at the clock. The café would be open for a while longer.

Maybe it wasn’t the healthiest coping mechanism, but since she was already in Sydney…

***

_What was it that they said about returning to something you left and finding it upside down?_

Sydney hadn’t changed much save for the typical modernization. New stores, new buildings, new lights, new flashy announcements. Yet Carmen could see the core of the city beneath.

She smiled; in a way, she was grateful for the new stuff. They made the walk to the café less like a déja vu.

The memories were enough to make the trip familiar without making it painful, the city noises made it less lonely. Carmen let herself believe she wasn’t lonely even if she was going to a café just to recreate the past, not because she really had someone to meet there.

Like she said, _not anymore_.

The sun was coming down, it painted the street in yellow, and reddish tones that matched her hair. Sometimes she liked to think those were small signs of the universe to remind her who she was. Carmen Sandiego, the name she had chosen for herself. Nothing about the path she had gone through had ever been drawn for her, she had always been the one with the power to shape it. 

However, there were things she couldn’t control. That was what she learned when she finally arrived at the café.

She did a double-take, grasping to whatever remains of sanity she might have left. The world bent sideways, but the young man sitting at one of the outdoor tables didn’t move. Save for his slightly more tanned skin, Gray looked the same as two years ago.

No, not quite the same. There were small details – dark circles under his eyes, a very faint stubble marking his jaw, and his slightly longer hair – that gave themselves away as small changes. And more importantly, they proved Carmen wasn’t imagining him.

He looked… good. Had the situation not been so bizarre, Carmen would have said he looked handsome. He was more muscular, too, it was discernable for the shape of his arms beneath the sleeves of his leather jacket – not his V.I.L.E. uniform or his electrician one. 

A rain of thoughts shot themselves through Carmen’s mind so rapidly and messily she didn’t have time to process them all.

 _Was he waiting for someone?_ It didn’t look like it, but…

_Was he waiting for Carmen?_

_Did he know she would come?_

She turned around and left.

The ground and the air felt awfully unsteady and wild like everything was made out of raw electricity. Terrifying, but thrilling. Had the situation not been so bizarre, Carmen would have smiled, too.

***

Graham Crackle wasn’t stupid, it didn’t matter what it said about him that he decided to leave his codename as it was.

He knew the scarlet red silhouette he saw running away like her heels were on fire was Carmen Sandiego. On the other hand, he couldn’t decide if the strange sensation that broke inside him was happiness over Carmen indeed returning to their café, or sorrow that she had turned around as soon as she saw him.

He settled for a short, sincere smile; he would deal with the sadness later. After all, he had just spotted Carmen Sandiego.


End file.
